Grant: Project Grant

Breathlessness is the hallmark symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Shortness of breath leads to reduced exercise capacity and significantly lowers quality of life. Females with COPD experience disproportionately greater shortness of breath and worse health outcomes in comparison to their male counterparts with similar disease severity. The relationship between breathlessness, physiologic responses to exercise, as well as lung and airway structure are not known and are the central focus of the proposed study. We will determine how breathlessness differs between females and males with mild to very-severe COPD as well as smokers at risk for developing COPD and healthy individuals using specialized exercise testing. We will be the first to use high resolution imaging of the lungs and airways to relate structural changes due to COPD to the breathlessness experienced by females with COPD. Our study is unique in that we will also include the assessment of gender, meaning an individual's identity as a man, woman, or non-binary person. We will therefore be able to identify the role that both sex and gender play in sensations of breathlessness in patients with COPD and in those who are at risk for developing COPD. This is the first study to explore sex and gender differences in breathlessness across the COPD disease severity continuum using detailed exercise tests and advanced imaging techniques. Understanding breathlessness in females with COPD is a critical step in order to develop effective individualized treatment strategies for the increased shortness of breath that females with COPD experience.